Questions: I can't call my formmail.pl securely. Please help. As well as my site hosted by you, I have another site as well. There I have a mail form which uses the form at www.mydomain.com/cgi-sys/formmail.pl but when I try that I get an error saying that I have to register the other site to be able to use formmail.pl. How do I do that? I can't find that information in your manual. If I have a CGI Script do I need the Extra telnet service? Do all CGI scripts need to be configured using telnet? I need your help in installing a perl script in my cgi-bin directory that supposes to search a small database that i am implementing. Please, tell me what to do to make the script executable can you provide me with a email form submission CGI script or functionality for my site? I'd like to use your formmail form; however, my web directory does not contain a cgi-bin directory, nor cgi-sys directory. Am I supposed to create them? How do I find the formmail.pl cgi? Error Message appeared: Internal Server error. contact administration..Happened when trying to get the pl file in the cgi-bin. The script is in the form of xxx.pl. Should I change it to xxx.cgi? I put a couple of cgi scripts on the server and when I go to run them I get a server error. The path to the perl interpreter is correct I believe. Could you help me? how do i get cgi working? i have tried everything listed in the knowledge base and it has not worked. i keep on getting a 500 internal server error and i have chmoded the files to 755 all the paths are set correctly and i uploaded in ASCII mode not binary. Does my server allow me to run CGI scripts outside of a cgi-bin directory? Can I use CGI and Perl to read and write files? Can I use any CGI script? Can I use Perl scripts in conjunction with www.x-mb.com services? Can I use CGI in conjunction with your services? What is Perl? What is CGI? What extension do I add to perl cgi scripts? (.pl, .cgi, or .txt)?? my browser say's Internal Server Error to accesing CGI script? What are the absolute Paths to Perl, Date, Sendmail, etc ? It is STILL saying I don't have permission to access ? It is saying I don't have permission to access. Quick Guidelines For Using SSI's I am getting a "File Not Found," or "No Such File or Directory." error. Where to Put CGI-bin Scripts How do I set permissions for my files and scripts? CGI Script Resources What is the path to PERL, SENDMAIL, DATE, etc? Adding CGI Scripts How To Use Formmail Formmail paths: cgi-sys Overview Answers: I can't call my formmail.pl securely. Please help. Just open let us know, we copy the formmail.pl file into your personal cgi-bin, formmail does not always work when called securely through the global cgi-bin. Then you will just need to change your scripts to call from your personal cgi-bin location. As well as my site hosted by you, I have another site as well. There I have a mail form which uses the form at www.mydomain.com/cgi-sys/formmail.pl but when I try that I get an error saying that I have to register the other site to be able to use formmail.pl. How do I do that? I can't find that information in your manual. For ANTI SPAM purposes, we dont allow this at all. You cannot use our formmail/sendmail etc. from other domains not hosted by us. If I have a CGI Script do I need the Extra telnet service? Do all CGI scripts need to be configured using telnet? No, 99% of scripts do NOT NEED any type of TELNET/SSH access :) I need your help in installing a perl script in my cgi-bin directory that supposes to search a small database that i am implementing. Please, tell me what to do to make the script executable You would make sure to UPLOAD in ascii, and you would chmod your executable files chmod 755 can you provide me with a email form submission CGI script or functionality for my site? Yes, this is included with EVERY account. Just go to your control panel and click on FORMMAIL button. Full instructions are included :) I'd like to use your formmail form; however, my web directory does not contain a cgi-bin directory, nor cgi-sys directory. Am I supposed to create them? How do I find the formmail.pl cgi? Actually, all accounts come with a cgi-bin directory. If you do not have one, you need to just create one. Otherwise, simply go to your online control panel, and click on Formmail button, and all instructions are there :) cgi-sys is a global cgi-bin within the server not on individual sites. Error Message appeared: Internal Server error. contact administration..Happened when trying to get the pl file in the cgi-bin. The script is in the form of xxx.pl. Should I change it to xxx.cgi? You should not have one inside the cgi-bin... but, you may want to just try it :) I put a couple of cgi scripts on the server and when I go to run them I get a server error. The path to the perl interpreter is correct I believe. Could you help me? We don´t give programming support. How do i get cgi working? i have tried everything listed in the knowledge base and it has not worked. i keep on getting a 500 internal server error and i have chmoded the files to 755 all the paths are set correctly and i uploaded in ASCII mode not binary. We don´t give programming support, so your best bet is to contact the script AUTHOR. Does my server allow me to run CGI scripts outside of a cgi-bin directory? Yes. (Note: in order to have your CGI script run automatically outside of the cgi-bin directory, it must have been named and saved with a ".cgi" extension.) Can I use CGI and Perl to read and write files? Yes, you can use Perl and CGI to read and write files. Can I use any CGI script? We allow users to write and run their own cgi-scripts, but we reserve the right to disallow scripts that have harmful server side effects (ie. a persistant script). Can I use Perl scripts in conjunction with your services? Yes. Each account is setup with a cgi-bin directory where perl programs can be run. Can I use CGI in conjunction with your services? Yes. Each account is setup with a cgi-bin directory where cgi programs live. What is Perl? Perl stands for Practical Extraction and Report Language. It is the most widely used language for CGI. What is CGI? CGI stands for Common Gateway Interface. Essentially it is a place where the Web server knows executable content lives. What extension do I add to perl cgi scripts? (.pl, .cgi, or .txt)?? Inside your cgi-bin, you can pretty much name them anything... .pl or .cgi Outside the cgi-bin, you need to name them .cgi My browser say's Internal Server Error to accesing CGI script? Ok, you need to check the following: Is the path to perl correct ? Did you upload in ASCII ? Yes, it matters. Did you set the permission on the script to chmod 755 ? Did you place it inside your cgi-bin ? If you placed it outside your cgi-bin... did you name it .cgi ? What are the absolute Paths to Perl, Date, Sendmail, etc ? Absolute Paths to Date, Mail, Perl, etc.(Advanced Users) CGI scripts often require paths to common server resources. These paths are as follows: (puts you in your web directory) (puts you in your cgi-bin) Sendmail: /usr/lib/sendmail Perl5.00404: /usr/bin/perl5.00404 Date: /bin/date Java: /usr/bin/java Python: /usr/bin/python Absolute Domain path: /home/your_username Absolute Cgi-bin path: /home/your_username/yourdomain-www/cgi-bin YOU CAN CHECK THESE BY LOGGING INTO YOUR CONTROL PANEL, AND CHOOSING FILE MANAGER It is STILL saying I don't have permission to access ? This error message means that you are missing your index.htm file. Note that files that start with a "." are hidden files. To see them, type ls -al. If you wish to FTP this file in, go to the home/yourdomain directory. It is saying I don't have permission to access. IMPORTANT: CGI scripts MUST be uploaded/downloaded in ASCII format. They must also be saved in ASCII (text or .txt) format. This is very important. Failure to follow these guidelines will result in an inoperable program. Quick Guidelines For Using SSI's SSI stands for Server Side Include... and it means that you can insert the contents of another web page, program or file into the web page that adds the Server Side Include. A couple of important points you need to follow for SSI to work on your domain. 1. The web page that adds the SSI instruction to include another page or program MUST end with .shtml or .sht rather than .html or .htm. 2. The URL to the page you want to insert must be relative to the current web page rather than a full URL. The SSI feature on your domain is limited to what is known as a "exec cgi command". This simply means that you can insert into any page the ability to execute any cgi program. The format for a Server Side Include is: " <!--#exec cgi="/cgi-bin/THE-PROGRAM-NAME-HERE.cgi"--> " One quick observation... do you notice how this SSI instruction uses a *relative* URL (/cgi-bin/....) instead of a FULL URL? This is very important to keep in mind when using SSI. For example, let's say we want to include a counter program (that has the name, counter.cgi) on our home page, called normally index.html. Remember! Because we want to add a SSI instruction in our home page, it must end with .shtml or .sht. In this case, we would name it index.shtml. I am getting a "File Not Found," or "No Such File or Directory." error. Upload your Perl or CGI script in ASCII mode, not binary mode. Where to Put CGI-bin Scripts Put your cgi-bin scripts in the yourdomain-www subdirectory named "cgi-bin". How do I set permissions for my files and scripts? Setting Permissions(Advanced Users) The following is a simple explanation of file permissions in Unix. To list the access permissions of a file or directory, telnet to your server, then type: cd directoryname to change the directory until you are either in the directory above the file you are interested in, or above the directory you are checking. Type: ls -l filename and you will see what the current permission settings are for that file, along with other information. Examples of using chmod: PEOPLE PERMISSIONS u = the file's user (you) r = read access g = the file's group x = execute access o = others w = write access a = the user, the group, and others To change permissions for a file named filename.cgi, you need to chmod the file (change mode). For example, when you type this: chmod u=rwx,g=rx,o=rx filename.cgi you've given: read, execute, and write access to the user (that's you) read and execute access to the group and read and execute access to others Some scripts will tell you to chmod 775 (for example). Doing the above is the same thing as typing chmod 775. You can use either method with our Unix servers. Let me explain: When using the numeric system, the code for permissions is as follows: r = 4 w = 2 x = 1 rwx = 7 The first 7 of our chmod775 tells Unix to change the user's permissions to rxw (because r=4 + w=2 + x=1 adds up to 7. The second 7 applies to the group, and the last number 5, refers to others (4+1=5). When doing an ls -l on the file, telnet always shows the permissions this way: -rwxr-xr-x Ignore the first dash, then break up the above into three groups of letters. If there's a dash where a letter should be, it means that there is no permission for those people. Remember: the first 3 apply to user, the second 3 apply to group, and the third 3 apply to others. CGI Script Resources There are many good resources for CGI scripts found on the web. The scripts at Matt's Script Archive found at http://www.worldwidemart.com/scripts/ are very good. Many of our scripts come from there. Another excellent resource is The CGI Resource Index found at http://www.cgi-perl.com/ Unless you are an expert on the subject, you should look for scripts that are very well documented and come with step-by-step instructions. You may contact us for help or installation. What is the path to PERL, SENDMAIL, DATE, etc? Absolute Paths to Date, Mail, Perl, etc.(Advanced Users) CGI scripts often require paths to common server resources. These paths are as follows: (puts you in your web directory) (puts you in your cgi-bin) Sendmail: /usr/lib/sendmail Perl5.00404: /usr/local/bin/perl Date: /bin/date Java: /usr/bin/java Python: /usr/bin/python Absolute Domain path: /home/your_username Absolute Cgi-bin path: /home/your_username/yourdomain-www/cgi-bin YOU CAN CHECK THESE BY LOGGING INTO YOUR CONTROL PANEL, AND CHOOSING FILE MANAGER Adding CGI Scripts We do not provide free support for CGI scripts which we do not install on your server, so if you wish to add new CGI scripts you may want to do a bit of research on them first unless you are familiar with them already. Adding new scripts requires a more advanced knowledge of programming terms and skills and is not generally recommended for Novice Users. If you are an experienced user, (or a novice who myopically decides to install your own scripts) you can access more technical cgi information in the Advanced User section of this manual. How To Use Formmail Please refer to the formmail manual available (in E, D, F, ESP) inside your online control panel. Formmail paths: cgi-sys all accounts have access to their personal cgi-bin and our global cgi-bin: PERSONAL cgi-bin: put files here: /home/username/yourdomainname-www/cgi-bin access in page with this URL: http://yourdomainname.com/cgi-bin GLOBAL cgi-bin: access in page with this URL: http://yourdomainname.com/cgi-sys The global bin information applies to counters and formmail. Overview CGI stands for "Common Gateway Interface,". What this means is that they are programs that are commonly run on a server when a web browser invokes them from a web page. This means that the web browser does not need to have any fancy viewers or plugins for the CGI program to run. The complicated part for most users trying to add cgi scripts is file paths and permissions. Even experienced programmers and webmasters struggle at times to properly configure cgi programs. If you are a Novice User with limited knowledge in this area, it is strongly recommended that you first become highly proficient with HTML and web page creation before attempting to do this yourself. Adding CGI Scripts We do not provide free support for CGI scripts which we do not install on your server, so if you wish to add new CGI scripts you may want to do a bit of research on them first unless you are familiar with them already. Adding new scripts requires a more advanced knowledge of programming terms and skills and is not generally recommended for Novice Users. If you are an experienced user, (or a novice who myopically decides to install your own scripts) you can access more technical cgi information in the Advanced User section of this manual.